Tamils in Italy are people of ethnic

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

ancestry who reside in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Recent estimates indicate that around 25,000 Tamils from both Sri Lanka and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

are living in Italy.
World Tamil Population
, ''tamilo.com''

History of Migration

Though it is not established when the migration of Tamil people to Italy started, Tamils were reported to have migrated to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

during the 1980s. More migrants came during the Sri Lankan Civil War, which commenced in 1983. It is estimated that Sri Lankan Tamils constitute at least a third of the Sri Lankan immigrants in Italy. The Tamil Diaspora is concentrated predominantly in Palermo, Catania,

, Reggio Emilia,

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

and Lecce, where a number of cultural and linguistic organizations are based.

References

{{Immigration to Italy Ethnic groups in Italy Asian diaspora in Italy Demographics of Italy